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Sunday, 13 September 2009

Having seen the rainfall we have had in Yambol for two days, Istanbul is only 150 kilometres away and got the worst of the floods. It is good that the Bulgarian President takes a public call of expressing Bulgarian regret and condolences with many fatalities reported and probably more to come. |The fact that a Bulgarian was one of the victims I don’t think had any sway in the statement.

President Georgi Purvanov has expressed his deep regret on behalf of the Bulgarian nation about the devastating floods in Turkey. He has also sent his Turkish counterpart, president Abdullah Gul, a message of condolence, a government press release has announced.

Purvanov stressed "his heartfelt regret for the loss experienced by the Turkish people affected by the disaster" and expressed his support on behalf of the Bulgarian people. He said that Bulgaria sincerely hopes that the situation in Turkey will be normalized as soon as possible.

Flash floods roared across a major highway and commercial district in Istanbul on September 10, killing dozens of people and forcing scores of people to scramble onto the roofs of cars and trucks to avoid raging torrents.

The sudden deadly floods were caused by relentless heavy rain that is expected to continue for several more days. Authorities report that such floods have not occurred for 80 years. Water levels rose up to 1.8m high in the city's Ikitelli district, cutting off the route to Istanbul's main airport and the highway to Greece and Bulgaria on the European side of the sprawling city.

According to reports from several media outlets, the Turkish government has pointed fingers at illegal construction in riverbeds in Istanbul for the heavy damage and casualties. "There is huge damage to infrastructure," said procurement minister Mustafa Demir. "We need to be more careful when designing infrastructure and cities," he told the Turkish Dogan news agency.

Police units have been deployed in the worst affected areas to prevent looting in factories and shops affected by the floods.